Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a Century eBook

I could indulge in the luxury of a buggy and horse.
I had a room in the best boarding house in Calcutta,
in which lived young civilians or competition-wallahs
as they were then styled, studying the languages prior
to being drafted somewhere up-country, barristers,
lawyers, merchants, and brokers. For this I paid
Rs. 90 per month. My bearer, khit, and dhobi
cost me a further Rs. 20—­the two first Rs.
8 each and the latter Rs. 4. House-rent was ridiculously
cheap in comparison with the rates of the present
day. As far as I recollect, the biggest house
in Chowringhee was obtainable for Rs. 400 or Rs. 450
at the outside. No. 3, London Street, where my
Burra Sahib then lived, was only Rs. 300 a month.
A horse and syce cost about Rs. 25 a month to keep,
and everything else in proportion. People were
then very simple and inexpensive in their tastes.
There was not, I think, the same inclination to spend
money, and, as a matter of fact, there were not so
many opportunities of doing so. For one thing,
there were no theatres and other places of amusement,
and trips home and even to the hills were few and
far between. Ladies in those days thought nothing
of staying with their husbands in Calcutta for several
consecutive years, and yet they lived happily and
contentedly through it all. To wind up the situation
as regards expenses, I should say roundly that they
are now about double what they were then.

POLICY OF INSURANCE.

I should just like to relate a little episode that
occurred in my very early days in Calcutta, which
nearly resulted disastrously for every one concerned.
It will serve, amongst other things, to enlighten
people of the present generation as to the wide difference
that subsists between that time and the present in
respect of the treatment of policy-holders generally
by insurance companies. The firm with which I
was then connected were agents of a Hongkong house,
and one of our duties was to pay to the Universal
Assurance Company, half-yearly, the premium on a policy
on the life of a man who was staying in England.
I forget exactly what the amount Was, but I recollect
it was something considerable. One fine day I
was startled beyond measure by the receipt of a notice
from the then agents, Gordon Stewart & Co., to the
effect that the days of grace having expired for payment
of the premium, the policy in question under the rules
had lapsed and had been consequently cancelled.
My feelings can be better imagined than described,
as I alone was responsible, and I was fully aware of
the gravity of the position. I made a clean breast
of the state of affairs to my Burra Sahib, and he
instructed me to go straight over to the agents and
explain matters, and at the same time authorised me
to offer to pay anything they might see fit to impose